The

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is the administrative and controlling body for association football, beach soccer, and futsal in Africa. It was established on 8 February 1957 at the ''Grand Hotel'' in Khartoum, Sudan. At the FIFA Co ...

(CAF) section of the

1990 FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification, qualification competition for the 1990 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations. Each confederation — the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Confederat ...

saw teams competing for two berths in the

final tournament Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. 26 nations in total entered the qualifying stage. FIFA rejected the entries of

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

and

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

due to their outstanding debts, leaving 24 nations to contest the qualifying spots.

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

and

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

withdrew after the draw for the first round, which took place on 12 December 1987, but before playing a match.

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

won their first round tie and advanced to the second round, but withdrew halfway through that stage, meaning all their results in the group were annulled.

Format

*First Round:

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

and

Zaire Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa, it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria, and the 11th-la ...

, the eight best ranked teams according to FIFA, received byes and advanced to the Second Round directly. The remaining sixteen teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The winners would advance to the Second Round. *Second Round: The eight winners from the first round were joined by the eight seeded teams and divided into four groups of four teams each. The teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would advance to the Final Round. *Final Round: The four remaining teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The winners would qualify.

First round

Eight knockout (two-legged) ties were originally required, involving the sixteen lowest ranked African countries. The withdrawals of three teams meant only five ties were actually contested. The eight successful teams advanced to the group format of the second round.

Second round

The eight qualifiers from the first round were joined by the eight highest-ranked CAF teams. The teams were split into four groups of four which played a home-and-away round-robin, with the four group winners advancing to the final round.

Group A

played one match in this group before withdrawing from the competition, annulling their results.

Group B

Group C

Group D

Final round

The four group winners from the second round were drawn into two ties. The winner of each two-legged tie qualified for the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

. Egypt won 1–0 on aggregate and qualified for the 1990 World Cup. ---- Cameroon won 3–0 on aggregate and qualified for the 1990 World Cup.

Qualified teams

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers

;4 goals *

François Omam-Biyik François Omam-Biyik (born 21 May 1966) is a Cameroonian football manager and former player who works as assistant manager of Cameroon. A forward, he was one of the most important players of the Cameroon national team in the nineties, playing ...

;3 goals *

Rabah Madjer Rabah Mustapha Madjer (; born 15 December 1958) is an Algerian former professional footballer who played as a striker. He reached stardom as a Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Po ...

Djamel Menad Djamel Menad (; 22 July 1960 – 22 March 2025) was an Algerian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Club career Born in El Bayadh, Menad started his playing career with CR Belou ...

* André Kana-Biyik * Abdel Rasoul Hesham * Peterkins Kayira *

Stephen Keshi Stephen Okechukwu Keshi (23 January 1962 – 7 June 2016) was a Nigerian association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. During his playing career, Keshi played as a defender (association football), defender ...

Jameleddine Limam Jameleddine Limam (born 11 June 1967) is a Tunisian former professional footballer who played as a forward for the Tunisia national team. He represented Tunisia at the 1994 and 1996 African Cup of Nations The 1996 African Cup of Nations, a ...

* Eugène Kabongo ;2 goals *

José Vieira Dias José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

* Joseph Maluka * Émile Mbouh * Abdoulaye Emmerson * Oumar Ben Salah * James Debbah *

George Weah George Manneh Oppong Weah (born 1 October 1966) is a Liberian politician and former professional Association football, footballer who served as the 25th president of Liberia from 2018 to 2024. Before his election for the presidency, Weah served ...

* Samson Siasia * Nabil Maâloul * Sundayin Moriri * N'Kiambi Mapuata *

Kalusha Bwalya Kalusha Bwalya (born 16 August 1963) is a Zambian former professional footballer. He is Zambia's eighth-most capped player and third on the list of all-time top goalscorers behind Godfrey Chitalu and Alex Chola. Kalusha was named African Foot ...

* Derby Makinka ;1 goal * Mavango Kiala * Osvaldo de Oliveira * Paulão * Manuel Saavedra * Gabriel Gnimassou * Jules Kadeba * Bonaventure Djonkep *

Emmanuel Kundé Emmanuel Jérôme Kundé (15 July 1956 – 16 May 2025) was a Cameroonian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football), defender. He spent the majority of his professional career playing for C ...

* Louis-Paul Mfédé * Mohamed Ala'a * Mohamed El-Akad *

Hossam Hassan Hossam Hassan Hassanein (; born 10 August 1966) is an Egyptian former professional association football, football player who played as a Striker (association football), striker, and current coach of the Egypt national football team, Egyptian nat ...

Ibrahim Hassan Ibrahim Hassan Hussein Ahmed (; born 10 August 1966) is an Egyptian football director and former professional football player who played as a right back. He is currently the director of the Egyptian national team. Ibrahim Hassan has 131 caps fo ...

* Régis Manon * Michel Minico * Joel Minko * Guy-Roger Nzamba * Nicaise Ondeno * Camara Toure * Peter Dawo * George Onyango * Jean-Pierre Guede Akenon * Yao Lambert Amani * Sékou Bamba * Ezzewdin Bezan * Fawzi El-Aisawi * Ayad El-Ghadi * Gilbert Chirwa * Singo McDonald *

Lawrence Waya Lawrence Waya (born 25 May 1963) is a Malawian former football player and manager. A forward, he represented the Malawi national team at international level. Club career Born in the village of Mphonde in Phalombe District, Nyasaland, Waya joi ...

* Aziz Bouderbala * Mohamed Madih * Abdelfettah Rhiati *

Mohammed Timoumi Mohamed Timoumi (; born 15 January 1960) is a Moroccan former association football, footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He was named African Footballer of the Year in 1985, and was the last player to win this award while playing clu ...

* Michael Obiku * Wole Odegbami * Osama Idriss * Lasaad Abdelli *

Tarak Dhiab Tarak Dhiab (; born 15 January 1954) is a Tunisian former association football, footballer and politician. The African Footballer of the Year in 1977, he is listed by the Tunisian Football Federation as having 107 caps for the Tunisia national foo ...

* Bassam Jeridi * Mohamed Ali Mahjoubi * Kais Yâakoubi * Kuyangana Makukula * Nkiere Wawa * Lucky Msiska * Charly Musonda * Witson Nyirenda * Stanley Ndunduma

External links

Africa Zone
at FIFA.com

at RSSSF.com {{DEFAULTSORT:1990 Fifa World Cup Qualification (CAF) CAF FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF) Qual